HATTIESBURG, Miss. - After a 23-year hiatus, Southern Miss and Mississippi State football teams will square off on the football field as the Golden Eagles and Bulldogs kickoff the 2014 season on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville, Miss.

Kickoff between the two teams is slated for 6:30 p.m. and will be televised on the SEC Network. Radio coverage of the broadcast begins ninety minutes prior to kickoff at 5:00 p.m. on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network. The Voice of the Golden Eagles' John Cox will announce the game, while Vic Purvis will do the color commentating. Dr. Bo Morgan will handle the sideline duties for the radio team.

The game will mark the 28th meeting between the two programs. Southern Miss holds a 14-12-1 (.537) advantage in the all-time series that dates back to 1935. The two teams were a fixture on each other schedules from 1964 through 1990, only missing 1971 and 1974 on each other's respective schedules.

The Last Meeting

Southern Miss

10

Mississippi State

13

September 22, 1990
Starkville, Miss.

The Black and Gold are .500 or better in games played in Hattiesburg (2-2) or at a neutral site (6-2), but the Golden Eagles are 6-8-1 in Starkville. However, the Golden Eagles have won four of their last five meetings there.

Southern Miss has won 12 of the last 16 contests against Mississippi State, including a streak of nine consecutive victories from 1975 to 1983 - the longest winning streak for either team in the series. The Bulldogs have won the last two match-ups between the two teams, edging the Golden Eagles by a field goal in both games.

The game will be the first time the two teams have met during the month of August. Prior to the 2014 meeting, the earliest the two teams met on the football field was Sept. 9 in a game played in Hattiesburg during the 1989 season, a 26-23 Mississippi State victory.

Mississippi State is the first of six opponents on the 2014 Golden Eagle schedule that made bowl appearances last season including Alabama, Rice, Middle Tennessee, North Texas and Marshall.

The Black and Gold opens its 98th football season when they meet Mississippi State to begin the 2014 campaign. The Golden Eagles have posted a 561-395-27 overall record in their history. The Golden Eagles first played football in 1912 and has fielded a team each year since, with the exception of the 1917-18 seasons for World War I and 1943-45 for World War II.

Southern Miss opens on the road for the third time in the last five seasons and for the 49th time in its history, having compiled a 21-27 record in those games.

Southern Miss is 63-33 in season openers (no score reported for the 1916 opener against Poplarville HS). This is the first time the school opens the season with an in-state opponent since defeating Alcorn State, 52-0, on Sept. 5, 2009. This is the first time Southern Miss will play its first two opponents from the state of Mississippi since 1934, as Alcorn State comes to Hattiesburg next week.

The Golden Eagles enter the 2014 season after snapping a school-record 23-game losing streak on Nov. 30, 2013, when they defeated UAB 62-27 in Birmingham. It was the most points for the program since scoring 63 against Navy on Oct. 8, 2011.